GENEVA (26 January 2015) – Guyana’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Wednesday 28 January 2015 in a meeting that will be webcast live.
GENEVA (26 January 2015) – Guyana’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Wednesday 28 January 2015 in a meeting that will be webcast live.
Guyana is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 19 to 30 January. Guyana’s first UPR review took place on 11 May 2010.
The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report – information provided by the State under review 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.
Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: addressing negative stereotypes against women; addressing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; decriminalising same-sex consensual relations; tackling violence against LGBT persons; addressing alleged police abuses, including unlawful killings, torture and ill-treatment; combatting all acts of violence against women and girls and supporting victims; abolishing the death penalty; prohibiting corporal punishment; access to clean water and sanitation; reducing maternal and infant mortality rates; access by women and girls to reproductive and HIV health services; reducing school dropout rates among girls; improving literacy rates; and Amerindian land rights and mining activities in indigenous traditional territories.
The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Guyana on 28 January can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/GYSession21.aspx
Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Wednesday 28 January (Geneva time, GMT + 1 hour)
The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed during the first UPR cycle and 112 thus far during the second cycle. The second review of States aims to highlight human rights developments in the country since its first review and provides an opportunity for States under review to spell out steps taken to implement recommendations posed during their first reviews.
The delegation of Guyana will be headed by Honourable Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Guyana are: Ethiopia, Portugal and Venezuela .
The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org.
The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Guyana will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link
[username: hrc extranet (with space)
password: 1session]
https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/21session/Guyana/Pages/default.aspx
The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations of Guyana at 17.30 on 30 January. The State under review may wish you to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.
